Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.6%	[ 83 ]
Summer	30.3%	[ 217 ]
Fall	7.0%	[ 50 ]
Winter	5.3%	[ 38 ]
Any time!	45.7%	[ 327 ]
Total Votes:			[ 715 ]

[Twelve and Pregnant]

What if i run out of paint?

[Vicemage]

I've had some experiences like that, Skye (one because the people had NO sense of time... if I tell you I'm packing it in at 4, and it's 3, you come back at 3:05, not 3:55, dammit)... and I'll admit, I've taken some but I haven't been so good at getting them together lately... >.> I need to get things straightened out well enough that I can find all the requests and get them knocked out around working on my comic pages. And in the meantime, I'm not going to be doing any more of that kind of stuff, not until the backlog's cleared. If my sign's down, I'm not taking your request, no discussion.

[Mad Miss]

Baaaah, I'm officially in the Alley and now I'm super duper nervous D: I have another question, what would you say is the best way to set up a table? I kind of don't want to use the PVC frame, because I'm tiny I don't want to make the table super tall and have it smother me XD I'm considering the wire boxes that where mentioned a little while back, but maybe there's something that would work better?

Thank so much for this thread, it's so helpful D: I'm so nervouuussss

[ninniku]

Mad Miss

Baaaah, I'm officially in the Alley and now I'm super duper nervous D: I have another question, what would you say is the best way to set up a table? I kind of don't want to use the PVC frame, because I'm tiny I don't want to make the table super tall and have it smother me XD I'm considering the wire boxes that where mentioned a little while back, but maybe there's something that would work better?

Thank so much for this thread, it's so helpful D: I'm so nervouuussss

What kind of things are you selling? And do you have a whole table or a half table?

[Mad Miss]

ninniku

Mad Miss

Baaaah, I'm officially in the Alley and now I'm super duper nervous D: I have another question, what would you say is the best way to set up a table? I kind of don't want to use the PVC frame, because I'm tiny I don't want to make the table super tall and have it smother me XD I'm considering the wire boxes that where mentioned a little while back, but maybe there's something that would work better?

Thank so much for this thread, it's so helpful D: I'm so nervouuussss

What kind of things are you selling? And do you have a whole table or a half table?

Ah, I've got a full table and I'm selling big dice pillows, armwarmers, prints, buttons and bookmarks. I might also make some collars to sell if I have time.

[Vicemage]

Sounds like the wire boxes would be a good bet for you, since you could use them to display your pillows, clip your armwarmers onto them, etc.

[Fiammetta Rey]

This one AA person who I see a lot at cons and also talk to online (she was in here a few times) linked me to a website where you can buy those wall fixture things that stores have, and you can use them with the wire box display... I'm going to see if I can find that site again, it seems useful.

Edit: Couldn't find the link she gave me, but googling Store Fixtures turn up some stuff.

[ninniku]

I would second the wire cages.

To hang things off the wire display I use the cheap method of paper clips and binder clips. You hang the paper clips from the wire cages, and then you hang the binder clips holding whatever to the paper clips. It's like $4.00 to cover your whole wire display.

For the buttons, I've seen people do several things:
1. Just lay them on the table willy nilly
2. Poke them in some kind of backing, cardboard, poster board, cork board, and rest it against something, or stand it up.
3. A box with square compartments perfect for buttons. Each compartment holds several of one kind of button.

[Jayde Panda]

I love my wire cubes...although I need to find a way to make them taller or otherwise expand my display because I'm running out of space...

Has anyone had this happen to them: At the last 3 cons, I have rearranged my display a little bit each day, and each day things tended to do a little better than the previous. For example at AWA I started w/ my buttons propped up near the middle of my table. On Saturday I just set them out flat on the table on one of the corners next to one of the towers and they got a whole lot more attention (sold 1 on Friday, and sold more like a dozen or so on Saturday). The same thing happened with my husband's chain mail jewelry and my sculpy charms. And different variations do better in different places. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

[Kyousouka]

Get more cubes 8D!

I haven't tested this, but has anyone tried using the cubes as a base for poles/etc? I'd imagine you could combine a properly weighted wire cube display with the old' poles+string method and have both a stand-up display and a hanging display.

[Vicemage]

I've actually seen people who use their cubes to more or less build a "pole" display (as in, using them to assemble a bridge or frame of cubes over their table so they can hang things from the top and look through between them).

I probably actually have enough cubes to do something like that, but no prints to hang on them, so I stick to one cube off to the side that hides my cash box and other things, and (at cons when I take them) supports my dolls.

Kasyrrah: Interesting... do you think it was because your display looked different each time, or because you were finding the areas where those items drew more attention?

[Fiammetta Rey]

I did the bridge thing with the wire cubes.

I'm going to get new ones for Ohayocon (if I get in) for 2 reasons.

1. I want black ones and my old ones were grey

2. I'm using my old ones as storage in my dorm room.

So... that.

[Frosted Muffin Cakes]

Anime Detour finally cashed my check for the alley, so I'm for sure in. heart

Question for people who do keychains/cell phone charms: How do you display them?
I have two drawing mannequins, and I was thinking of hanging them off their arms, since I like to bring them along anyway? How does that sound?

Also, when using the wire cubes people have been talking about, which way do you have the open side face? That's never been clear to me.. razz